It is sometimes desirable to close the fallopian tubes of a woman for sterilization purposes or for other medical related reasons. The use of a minimally invasive medical procedure to close the fallopian tubes is often preferred in comparison to more invasive surgical methods, such as tubal ligation. One such minimally invasive medical procedure involves using a catheter device to wound the epithelial lining of a fallopian tube and then deploying a single implant into a fallopian tube. The wounding of the epithelial lining of the fallopian tube will stimulate tissue ingrowth into the porous implant to fully occlude the fallopian tube in time, resulting in permanent sterilization.
An example of such a catheter device is the Adiana® Permanent Contraception system (Hologic, Inc., Marlborough, Mass.). To use this system, a flexible delivery catheter is passed through the vagina and cervix and into a fallopian tube to deliver a low level of radiofrequency energy, followed by the delivery of a small, compressible occlusion implant. An implant stored in the device is placed in the uterotubal junction of a fallopian tube to permanently occlude said fallopian tube. Such devices and procedures are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,384, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This device, however, is generally adapted to effectuate occlusion of a single fallopian tube, thereby requiring employment of two such devices to effectuate occlusion of both fallopian tubes.